Callow Top Holiday Park

Callow Top Holiday Park has received lots of awards, and it’s easy to see why: the location is great, and the list of facilities endless.

There’s an on-site supermarket selling all the essentials, plus some carefully considered products such as camper-friendly barbeque packs (without any gastronomical prices). From May to September, visitors can callow-n around in the heated outdoor swimming pool and paddling pools. There’s an amusement arcade, well-designed children’s playgrounds and a games field with football and cricket pitches, plus a volleyball court. You can hire bikes, bait your hook at the fishing lake or do some twitching in the bird hide. In season, you won’t need to go far for entertainment, with outdoor family discos, live bands, quiz nights and bingo all laid on. The cherry on the lager top is the place’s own micro-brewery, which concocts tasty real ales under its ‘Bad Ram’ brand name.

Tummywise, the Callow Inn, a former drovers’ inn on site, serves trad pub grub and children’s meals as well as the aforementioned home brew. There’s also a café bar with pool tables and satellite TV. Venture just a little further and you’ll find loads of eateries in the pleasant market town of Ashbourne, including some that will deliver takeaway to the site.

Callow Top offers a mixture of non-serviced grass pitches for tents, plus hardstandings with electricity for campervans, caravans and trailer tents.

Dogs are welcome on site, but must be kept on leads at all times. Regretfully, dogs are not allowed in the Callow Inn, Arnold’s Café Bar, Callow Top shop, swimming pool area or fishing lake/nature reserve.

Site type

2

200

100

100

1

Tourist board rating

Languages spoken

&check; English

Set in prime Derbyshire territory, there are fantastic walks all around, and for power-pedallers, the Tissington Trail provides a (mainly flat) route out of Callow Top right into the heart of the ravishing Peak District.

The local region boasts a cornucopia of pleasures for all ages, from the stately Chatsworth House and historic spa towns of Buxton and Matlock, to the chills, spills and thrills of Alton Towers. Visitors of an excitable disposition can keep their adrenaline boosted with watersports, paintballing, zip wiring, high wire assault courses, quad biking and laser tag all available nearby.

Younger children will enjoy a visit to Gulliver’s Kingdom theme park or a ride in a cable car followed by some cave-exploring at the Heights of Abraham. Other options include walking among macaque monkeys in the Monkey Forest at the Trentham Estate, near Stoke on Trent, where they can also make like an ape on the aerial walkways - all that fun should buy you some privileges at Trentham’s shopping village or lakeside café, surely?

Local pubs

Cosy former coaching inn with pretty country furnishings, roaring open fires and food all day

Traditional 17th-c inn with open-plan beamed bar, three fires, attractive mix of old tables, curved settles and other seats on ancient flagstones, friendly licensees, good well presented home-made food from shortish menu in bar and conservatory restaurant, nice wines by the glass, Marstons Pedigree and guests; background music; picnic-sets in field behind, boules, handy for Carsington Water, three good bedrooms, big breakfast

Chatty old country pub well run by cheerful welcoming young landlady, generous wholesome food lunchtimes and most Weds-Sat evenings, Robinsons ales, good log fire in neat traditional back bar, pool in small front hatch-served games room, another room serving as proper village shop; tables in front courtyard, picnic-sets on neat side grass, good walks

Nicely modernised late 18th-c dining pub in attractive village; good range of interesting well presented food from pubby things to more expensive restaurant dishes, four Greene King ales, speciality coffees, simple country-style dining furniture, two pretty little working art nouveau fireplaces; background music; children welcome, dogs in bar area, picnic-sets under parasols on front and back terraces, self-catering cottage, open all day Sun

Liked: Clean toilets and showers. Closeness to Ashbourne and the Tissington Trail.

Disliked: 1. The price - £22.50 per night in low season - that's without children, dogs or awnings!2. The closeness of the pitches. We were crammed in so close, and almost nose to nose with the motorhome opposite.3. The showers - which cost 20p for 4 minutes (on top of the already high price of the pitch) and there were no sockets for a hairdryer. Therefore you have to go outside the building with wet hair, round to the toilet block to use the hairdryer (for another 20p).

From the manager...

Thank you for taking the time to review us afer your stay.I'm suprised to hear that you felt crammed in as the pitches either side of you were empty. We would gladly have moved you to a different area if you'd let us know that you were unhappy.The reason we have a small charge for the showers is to reduce waiting time during busy periods and also to help reduce water consumption.Due to the design of our showers, individual rooms opening to the outside, it's not possible to have sockets in them as there would be the possibility of water mixing with electric which wouldn't be a good combination! I'm sorry that you disliked the cost. Our prices are clearly stated on pitchup so you can see before you book. Perhaps you could return during one of our offer periods when electric pitches start from £11.25 per night? We'd be happy to book you onto one of our pitches with hedges so it would be a little more private.

Location

Value for money

Accommodation

Facilities/activities

(No rating)

Customer service

Child friendliness

Cleanliness

Wifi

(No rating)

Overall

5

Disappointed24 Oct 2014

Lynne B.
(Mature couple, 1 review)
Confirmed

Date stayed: Oct 2014

Recommend to friends Visit again

Liked: Unfortunately not good weather but ideally situated site especially for Tissington trail and Ashbourne. Pub closed and cafe only open from 6 til 10 so not able to comment as didn't use them. Pitch good size.

Disliked: Friends wanted to visit for a couple of hours but were told they couldn't. They wanted to do a repair on our caravan so persisted and were allowed in for one hour for a £10 deposit which was only refundable if they left within the hour. Don't think this is a good policy as people may come to visit friends or relatives in the area and this would make it difficult. I understand you don't want lots of people but think you could use your discretion as we were all pensioners, the pool was closed and the site was almost empty.Also not been on a site where the showers are practically out side and so far from toilets. Probably ok in summer but not at this time of year. It means using the toilets, trekking outside for a shower and then back again to use hair drier. Showers were not too clean but nice and warm.Skips near showers were full to the top. Obviously not been emptied for a while as not a busy time of year and probably a health hazard. Dread to think what it would be like in the summer.Only having wifi in the cafe when it is only open from 6 til 10 is a waste of time and very inconvenient as no other wifi access. On all sites we have been there has been wifi access even at a cost.Our electric point was a long way from the pitch but luckily we had an extra long cable. This would have been a problem for some caravans.

Location

Value for money

Accommodation

(No rating)

Facilities/activities

(No rating)

Customer service

(No rating)

Child friendliness

(No rating)

Cleanliness

Wifi

Overall

5

Fantastic site, everything in one place and all very friendly23 Oct 2014

Paula-Jayne L.
(Mature couple, 1 review)
Confirmed

Date stayed: Oct 2014

Recommend to friends Visit again

Liked: Everything, showers were warm and clean, toilets very clean. Everything you need all on one site and easy to travel to Ashbourne, Tissington Trail and Dovedale, Love this site.

Liked: Pitches were nice and big to get our tent on. Couldn't fault anything really for our first time visit to this campsite.

Disliked: The only thing I would say is that the children's playground could do with some lights on it at night, as there were a lot of children playing on it in the dark and surprised there were no accidents.

Location

Value for money

Accommodation

Facilities/activities

Customer service

Child friendliness

Cleanliness

Wifi

(No rating)

Overall

8

Had a lovely stay. The facilities were excellent. Friendly and helpful19 Oct 2014

Annette B.
(Mature couple, 1 review)
Confirmed

Date stayed: Sep 2014

Recommend to friends Visit again

Liked: All the facilities were clean. The staff were very helpful and friendly. The pitch we had was nice and large and the weekend we went there were lots of families there but that was great to see. Plenty of things for families to do on the site. Anyone taking their dog with them, like we did there are also dog wastebins provided to keep it seperate from normal waste.

Liked: How quiet the site was. How each pitch had its own secluded area. Cleanliness of facilities.

Disliked: Nothing

Location

Value for money

Accommodation

Facilities/activities

Customer service

Child friendliness

(No rating)

Cleanliness

Wifi

(No rating)

Overall

10

Lots of facilities but noisy7 Oct 2014

Katie D.
(Family with young children, 1 review)
Confirmed

Date stayed: Sep 2014

Recommend to friends Visit again

Liked: the pool and other facilities are a great bonus, everything within walking distance of your tent and part of the fees, all clean and tidy, great!!

Disliked: that our friends weren't allowed to come and have lunch on site with us. I also disliked the inconsiderate and rude caravaners on the pitches across the road from us, whilst it wasn't past the curfew they had no consideration for anyone else around them (not callow tops fault of course!!)

Location

Value for money

Accommodation

(No rating)

Facilities/activities

Customer service

Child friendliness

Cleanliness

Wifi

(No rating)

Overall

7

family with two young children camping forth first time2 Oct 2014

ben h.
(Family with young children, 1 review)
Confirmed

Date stayed: Sep 2014

Recommend to friends Visit again

Liked: The whole experience of the park. All pitches and areas are clean and well kept

Disliked: Having to come home

Location

Value for money

Accommodation

Facilities/activities

Customer service

Child friendliness

Cleanliness

Wifi

(No rating)

Overall

10

Very nice site, friendly service. 2 Oct 2014

beverley b.
(Family with older children, 1 review)
Confirmed

Date stayed: Sep 2014

Recommend to friends Visit again

Liked: The pub and cafe on site, prices were reasonable, nice clean site.

Disliked: The long walk to the toilet block on field 6, think a toilet, shower and pot wash area in the middle of field 6 would be a good idea?!.

Location

Value for money

Accommodation

Facilities/activities

Customer service

Child friendliness

Cleanliness

Wifi

Overall

7

Alas, no reviews for your selected filters.
But reviews are brilliant - they help thousands of other people to find the right holiday. Be bold, be the first to review this site. It only takes a minute.

Directions

The access to Callow Top is half a mile north of Ashbourne off the A515. We are opposite Sandybrook garage. Two large green signs mark the entrance.

Please note: All distances on this page are calculated "as the crow flies" - please check actual distance depending on your mode of travel using the Get directions button above.

Permitted arrival/departure time

Camping and touring

Arrive:

noon –

9 p.m.

Depart:

11 a.m.

Cancellation policy

No penalties

Late arrivals must be notified as soon as possible. Your booking will be held for 24 hours. After this period the management reserves the right to relet your unit. No refunds for late arrivals or early departures.

If you need to cancel or amend your booking, please give as much notice as possible
so that someone else has the chance to book. You may wish to buy holiday insurance
for cancellations and for your property/injury whilst away.

Please note that your deposit is paid to Pitchup.com and is non-refundable.

Payment of balance

Payment on arrival.

Payment methods accepted on the park

Cash
Maestro
MasterCard
Visa

Terms and conditions

Please note

- Our maximum pitch occupancy is 1 family (2 adults and their children up to the age of 16) or 2 couples. No single-sex groups, groups of 3 or more pitches, under 21s, school, university, Scout/Guide, Duke of Edinburgh or other similar groups.

Swimming pool is open from May - end of September.

Park gates are closed between 11.30pm and 6.30am. There is no pedestrian access.

Facilities may vary according to the time of season. If you stay with us during low season (April/May/midweek June/September/October/November,) please expect limited facilities to be available. The pub is only open at weekends. The Arnold's Café Bar is always open at weekends but weekday opening is dependent on the number of guests staying on site at the time.

Arrive:Fri 20 Sep 2013Depart:Sun 22 Sep 2013
(2 nights)Party:2 adults

Click once to select your first day, and again for your departure day.

Adults (18+)

Children

Child ages

Group booking? ?

It's now possible to make group bookings on Pitchup.com for up to 30 adults and 30 children.

As long as the 'one unit per pitch' rule is not highlighted on the pitch type information (please check this before completing your booking), you will be able to pitch your tents together on one booking.

If you are not satisfied with the results generated, try breaking your booking down for more options. For example, if you're a group of 10, enter five people for your initial search and book two pitches. Use the 'Special requests' box on the booking page to ask to be sited together when booking multiple pitches or accommodation units: the campsite or park will try to grant your request.

Before booking, please check the listing page for any group restrictions. These normally appear in a section titled 'Please note'. Please also check the restrictions on unit dimensions to ensure your unit - especially for a large party - is suitable for the space you will be provided with.

Report a problem

Contact Callow Top Holiday Park

Terms and conditions

- Our maximum pitch occupancy is 1 family (2 adults and their children up to the age of 16) or 2 couples. No single-sex groups, groups of 3 or more pitches, under 21s, school, university, Scout/Guide, Duke of Edinburgh or other similar groups.- Day/evening visitors are strictly not accepted under any circumstances.- All caravans and vehicles on site must be insured and have a valid MOT if applicable.- Extra car is not permitted if a pup tent is included in your booking.- If you have a large unit you must tell us at the time of booking. If you fail to advise us we cannot guarantee that your pitch will be of adequate size.- We must be advised of any changes to your booking before your arrival.- Callow Top is a family site and we ask that noise is kept to a minimum at all times and to an absolute minimum after 11pm.- Dogs are welcome on site, but must be kept on a lead at all times. We are very sorry but dogs are not allowed in the Callow Inn, Arnold’s Café Bar, Callow Top shop, swimming pool area or fishing lake/nature reserve.- Barbecues/chimineas are permitted as long as they are raised off the ground.- Campfires/open fires are not permitted.- The swimming/paddling pools are not supervised by a lifeguard and children under the age of 15 must be supervised by a parent/guardian aged 18+ at all times. Swimming pool is open from May to end of September.- It is your responsibility to keep your possessions safe and secure whilst staying at Callow Top. We do not accept any liability for any damage, loss or injury to you or any member of your party or any vehicles or possessions, unless proven to be caused by a negligent act by ourselves or our employees or contractors whilst acting in the course of employment.- We would only cancel your holiday if your pitch/accommodation was unavailable for reasons beyond our control. In such an instance we would refund any payment made. Our liability would not extend beyond this refund.- Park gates are closed between 11.30pm and 6.30am. There is no pedestrian access. If you need access between these times then prior arrangements must be made with reception.- Facilities may vary according to the time of season. If you stay with us during low season (April/May/midweek June/September/October/November,) please expect limited facilities to be available. The pub is only open at weekends. The Arnold's Café Bar is always open at weekends but weekday opening is dependent on the number of guests staying on site at the time.